On April 12, the Biden Administration released a Pennsylvania Infrastructure Needs Report cataloguing how infrastructure in the state has suffered from the lack of investment.  Here's the report--

Pennsylvania’s infrastructure received a C- grade on its Infrastructure Report Card. The American Jobs Plan will make a historic investment in our nation’s infrastructure.

-- Roads and Bridges: In Pennsylvania there are 3,353 bridges and over 7,540 miles of highway in poor condition. Since 2011, commute times have increased by 7.6% in Pennsylvania and on average, each driver pays $620 per year in costs due to driving on roads in need of repair. The American Jobs Plan will devote more than $600 billion to transform our nations' transportation infrastructure and make it more resilient, including $115 billion repairing roads and bridges.

-- Public Transpotation: Pennsylvanians who take public transportation spend an extra 68.8% of their time commuting and non-White households are five times more likely to commute via public transportation. 22% of trains and other transit vehicles in the state are past useful life. The American Jobs Plan will modernize public transit with an $85 billion investment.

-- Resilient Infrastructure: From 2010 to 2020, Pennsylvania has experienced 37 extreme weather events, costing the state up to $10 billion in damages. The President is calling for $50 billion to improve the resiliency of our infrastructure and support communities’ recovery from disaster.

-- Drinking Water: Over the next 20 years, Pennsylvania’s drinking water infrastructure will require $16.8 billion in additional funding. The American Jobs Plan includes a $111 billion investment to ensure clean, safe drinking water is a right in all communities.

-- Home Energy: In Pennsylvania, an average low-income family spends 8-10% of their income on home energy costs forcing tough choices between paying energy bills and buying food, medicine or other essentials. The American Jobs Plan will upgrade low-income homes to make them more energy efficient through a historic investment in the Weatherization Assistance Program, a new Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator to finance building improvements, and expanded tax credits to support home energy upgrades.

-- Clean Energy Jobs: As of 2019, there were 93,861 Pennsylvanians working in clean energy, and the American Jobs Plan invests in creating more good paying union jobs advancing clean energy production by extending and expanding tax credits for clean energy generation, carbon capture and sequestration and clean energy manufacturing.

-- Housing: In part due to a lack of available and affordable housing, 720,000 renters in Pennsylvania are rent burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent. The President proposes investing over $200 billion to increase housing supply and address the affordable housing crisis.

-- Broadband: 5% of Pennsylvanians live in areas where, by one definition, there is no broadband infrastructure that provides minimally acceptable speeds. And 44% of Pennsylvanians live in areas where there is only one such internet provider. Even where infrastructure is available, broadband may be too expensive to be within reach. 14% of Pennsylvania households do not have an internet subscription. The American Jobs Plan will invest $100 billion to bring universal, reliable, high-speed, and affordable coverage to every family in America.

-- Manufacturing: Manufacturers account for more than 11% of total output in Pennsylvania, employing 565,000 workers, or 9.3% of the state’s workforce. The American Job’s Plan will invest $300 billion to retool and revitalize American manufacturers, including providing incentives for manufacturers to invest in innovative energy projects in coal communities.

-- Veterans Health: Pennsylvania is home to over 800,000 veterans, 7.3% of whom are women and 55% of whom are over the age of 65. The President is calling for $18 billion to improve the infrastructure of VA health care facilities to ensure the delivery of world-class, state of the art care to veterans enrolled in the VA health care system. This includes improvements to ensure appropriate care for women and older veterans.

-- Caregiving: Across the country, hundreds of thousands of older adults and people with disabilities are in need of home and community-based services. The President’s plan will invest $400 billion to help more people access care and improve the quality of caregiving jobs.

-- Child Care: In Pennsylvania, there is an estimated $1.41 billion gap in what schools need to do maintenance and make improvements and 57% of residents live in a childcare desert. The American Jobs Plan will modernize our nation’s schools and early learning facilities and build new ones in neighborhoods across Pennsylvania and the country.

Click Here for the complete announcement.

Resource Links:

Reimagine Appalachia Applauds President Biden’s Proposed Infrastructure Plan 

White House Fact Sheet On The American Jobs Plan

Op-Ed: PA Needs Federal Infrastructure Bill To Help Prepare Our Communities For Flooding - PA Assn. Of Floodplain Managers

[Posted: April 12, 2021]

4/19/2021